Almost Deserved
by The Hobbit's Rhapsody
Summary: Thirty-five sentences for two schoolmates turned legends of Narnia. Fluff!


**A/N: Funny story, it never even occurred to me to ship these two until I started reading all the fanfic about them. I certainly never expected to be writing this! It's not my best work, but I hope you enjoy. If you'd like to leave one, reviews always make my day!**

**The fantastic C. S. Lewis created _The Chronicles of Narnia_ and everything therein; I take no credit for them.**

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1 • **First**

The first time he kissed her was in Aslan's Country under an apple tree, and they both agreed that even though they probably had an audience, it was the perfect spot.

2 • **Reflex**

After their first trip to Narnia, Eustace learned not to sneak up on her, as she was prone to accidentally blacking blokes' eyes with an elbow when startled.

3 • **Resilient**

Eustace was really impressed by the way Pole managed to be so polite to his mother without bending under any of her sometimes heavy-handed insults.

4 • **Other**

When he was plummeting off that cliff, convinced he was going to die, in between feeling terrified and scared out of his mind he was mostly sorry that Pole was going to spend so much time feeling awful about it later.

5 • **Impression**

The look on Mr. and Mrs. Pole's faes when Jill first invited Eustace over for dinner—their daughter hardly ever brought friends round, let alone a boy—was almost enough to put Jill off the idea of romance altogether.

6 • **Cycle**

Jill didn't realize how much she'd missed Scrubb over the summer until his stolid, grinning face appeared beside her at the school gate and she was flinging herself into his arms.

7 • **Soft**

She didn't know when he hand had slipped into his, but she noted absently that she had no desire to pull away.

8 • **Young**

Whenever they met with the other Friends of Narnia, Eustace always found it a comfort that he could still gripe with Pole about schoolwork.

9 • **Together**

Their dancing was dreadful; they both agreed on it, but that didn't stop them from grabbing one another for partners in class.

10 • **Forgiven**

Even after she'd pushed him off the cliff and muddled all the signs and generally been a brat, Jill had never been so relieved in her life to find that someone didn't hate her.

11 • **Truth**

"But why me—"

"I love you, goosehead, and if you don't love me back now would be a jolly good time to let me know—"

12 • **Grievance**

She always found herself resorting to the silent treatment whenever she was angry with him, though she was never quite sure which of them came out the worse for it.

13 • **Compliment**

He told her she looked "downright beautiful" in the velvet dress with her hair all done up, and she couldn't speak for a full quarter hour.

14 • **Regular**

She noticed right away when his voice stopped periodically cracking, but she waited a few weeks to mention it, when he finally noticed she'd quit teasing him about it.

15 • **Promises**

When they talked about dying in Narnia, she wanted so badly for him to reassure her they would be fine, because if he made her promises she could believe them.

16 • **Defend**

When one of Them called Pole "mousy," "spineless," and "dull as Master Philburn's second period geometry lecture," Eustace gave him a hard right cross in the gut and didn't mind telling the headmaster just why.

17 • **Recall**

Pole and Scrubb really had no idea how much speculation was running around school as to why she burst into giggles whenever he offered her a peppermint.

18 • **Best**

Although no one else at home knew of the Marshwiggle's existence, Eustace couldn't help but warm inside whenever Jill proclaimed his Puddleglum impressions to be "most superior."

19 • **Realize**

She would have sworn on a Bible she didn't realize what a handsome bloke Scrubb was until she learned he could play piano.

20 • **Notice**

Lucy and Polly were always very careful to hide their knowing smiles whenever they saw Eustace and Jill unconsciously orbiting around each other at the later Friends of Narnia meetings.

21 • **Tact**

Edmund wasn't half so subtle, startling a blush out of Eustace when he offhandedly commented on what a fine young woman Jill was turning out to be.

22 • **News**

News of their engagement didn't stay secret for five minutes before every Talking Mouse in The Real Narnia was rushing up to kiss their hands, babbling the most bombastic, if genuinely enthusiastic, congratulations Jill had ever heard.

23 • **Timeless**

There was no thought of growing old together—it simply wasn't done when one was already dead—but all that absence meant was that they would have all eternity, rather than a handful of decades.

24 • **Close**

"Here—" Eustace slipped his arms around Jill and adjusted her grip on the bow— "your arrows will be more accurate if you hold it like this."

25 • **Familiar**

Eustace was startled breathless for a heartbeat when the dye washed away and Jill's fair face emerged from the Calormene façade.

26 • **Contact**

Jll was almost giddy when she found out Scrubb had taken a cue from his cousins and taken up letter-writing.

27 • **Secret**

Usually Jill came off as the blunt, pragmatic type, but Eustace had glimpsed the romance novels tucked between her schoolbooks.

28 • **Ahead**

Finally Jill decided the picnic lunches with Eustace were worth soldiering through all the gossip in the dorms.

29 • **Strong**

No matter what Alberta said about "his unladylike little playfellow," Eustace wouldn't have traded his giant-trouncing, horseback-riding, fencing, worthy-to-be-knighted Pole for any more society-savvy girl.

30 • **Forfeit**

Eustace threw out his treasured insect collection as a precaution when Jill confessed her terror of spiders.

31 • **Risk**

It was nonsense, he thought; even if he did like Pole, he couldn't risk ruining their friendship over something like that.

32 • **Brave**

But Aslan had said he wasn't a coward, and when he finally did say those three words and her face lit up like a Christmas mantel, he forgot why he'd ever thought telling her would be a bad idea.

33 • **Purpose**

As she sat across from Eustace in the train car, laughing at his jokes until tears ran down her face, watching him frown and suck in his lip over the newspaper crossword, it struck her that this—with him, just like this—was where she wanted to be, forever.

34 • **Signs**

Jill didn't miss the raised eyebrows Tirian kept giving them, but she stuffed down any off-kilter heartbeats or stray wishes—she and Eustace?—what a notion!

35 • **Mine**

"On sunny afternoons like this," he told her on the day their pledged their lives to each other, "I can almost feel I deserve you."


End file.
